AVmail: June 8, 2009

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The views expressed in this section are strictly those of the contributors, and are not necessarily shared by AVweb, its staff or management.

NOTE: If we select your email for publication, we reserve the right to edit it for length and to excise language we deem offensive. We do not publish unsigned emails, but we will withhold your name if you specifically ask us to.

Each week, we run a sampling of the letters received to our editorial inbox here in AVmail. One letter that's particularly relevant, informative, or otherwise compelling will headline this section as our "Letter of the Week," and we'll send the author an official AVweb baseball cap as a "thank you" for interacting with us (and the rest of our readership). Send us your comments and questions using this form. Please include your mailing address in your e-mail (just in case your letter is our "Letter of the Week"); by the same token, please let us know if your message is not intended for publication.

Flying's Future

We at Flying were pleased to see AVweb report that our magazine has joined the Bonnier Corp. team. With nearly 50 special interest titles, Bonnier is in a unique position to understand Flying's mission and its audience — readers who, simply stated, are passionate about flying. Indeed, Bonnier, with its long and keen experience in enthusiast titles, and Flying, the world's foremost newsstand aviation magazine, are nothing short of a perfect fit.

While it has not been previously announced, we are happy to report that Bonnier has retained the entire staff at Flying, including our lineup of popular columnists. So the September issue of the magazine, the first that will be published under Bonnier's stewardship, will represent not a fresh start but a continuation of an 82-year legacy of excellence. We expect that tradition to flourish under Bonnier.

Despite tough times for the industry, we at Flying are confident in our shared future. And we are confident that our new place as a part of an impressive media team at Bonnier will allow us opportunities to grow the magazine and its online component while remaining faithful to our mission, to provide pilots with the kind of incisive and insightful content that keeps us all in the know.

Robert Goyer
Senior Editor, Flying

Flying Fan

In my opinion, Flying magazine's staff represents a perfect balance. It is one of the best aviation magazines out there. I look forward to receiving it each month, and I read it from cover to cover. Let's hope that the new owners don't decide to "fix" something that is definitely not broken!

Sam Leach

Paying Peanuts

I have been preaching for many years that today's young pilots do not get training from many experienced instructors. The new instructors have no real-life experience, and what little they have is dual-pilot with no opportunity to make decisions for themselves. So what we get are low-time pilots who have no decision-making ability [and] no unusual attitude training and do not understand ATC.

The air carriers that hire these poorly trained employees don't have the personnel or finances to give them the proper training. So, what we have is paying peanuts and getting monkeys.

Bob Sudderth

Flight 93 Memorial

Regarding use of eminent domain for the Flight 93 memorial: Although details were sketchy, it appears the Department of the Interior (DOI) got behind and simply used this as a way to meet what amounts to an arbitrary date. I am second to no one in admiration for what the pax and crew of Flight 93 did. I was working in the Pentagon the same day. Nonetheless, failure to engage property owners in a dialogue concerning their property is unconscionable for a public agency. Hope you keep the spotlight on this until it becomes clear just what DOI thinks it's doing.

So the U.S. government is using force to build a memorial to those who fought against the terrorist warriors whose method is force? Alarmingly, several people in government don't get the concept.

Keith Sketchley

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Question of the Week

Picture of the Week

Ted Runciman of Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire (England) enlists the Turkish Air Force in our latest "Picture of the Week." Click through to read more about the top photos and see other stunning shots from AVweb readers.